It’s no secret trans fats are unhealthy. But now that the Food and Drug Administration is pushing to remove them from the food supply, there may be some unintended consequences: America’s favorite snacks won’t last as long on grocery store shelves, they could be more expensive, and they might not taste as good.

The fact that FDA said Thursday a widely used ingredient should no longer be considered safe represents one of the most sweeping actions the agency has taken in recent years.

And American consumers could very well see — and taste — a difference.

Take Pop Secret popcorn. Partially hydrogenated oils is on the list of ingredients and the nutrition facts show there are 5 grams of trans fat per serving.

But that’s just one of many popular products that likely would have to undergo a reformulation. Other products with labels that show they possess trans fats, according to a recent article in Health Magazine, include: Duncan Hines buttercream frosting, Bisquick’s original pancake mix, Kid Cuisine All American Fried Chicken meal and Häagen-Dazs caramel cone ice cream.

Partially hydrogenated oils, the primary dietary source of trans fat, are made by bubbling hydrogen through vegetable oils — a chemical process that makes the oil much more shelf stable and easier to blend with other ingredients.

Food scientists contend they make products taste better, last longer and even make them more affordable, but research has shown over the years that the compounds are a major contributor to heart disease, raising bad cholesterol and lowering good cholesterol.

While companies have greatly reduced their usage of trans fats in recent years — in response to labeling requirements and consumer awareness — the question remains: Can the food industry further reduce, or eliminate, trans fats without compromising taste and quality?

FDA’s announcement is “a very big deal for the food industry,” says Kantha Shelke, a food chemist and food ingredient technology expert, in Chicago. She thinks the most immediate impact will be shorter shelf life. Food manufacturers will have to rein in the expiration dates they put on products. She believes companies will find a way to reformulate their products; they just might be more expensive and not taste quite the same.

There is another potential unintended consequence: The move away from trans fats could increase the saturated fat content of foods — both are considered heart unhealthy at certain quantities.

“They could go back to the formulations they had about 20 years go, which used tropical oils like coconut oil, palm kernel oil, but those are all heavy saturated fats,” explains Janet Collins, a food scientist, nutritionist and president of the Institute of Food Technologists. “We don’t know how this is going to turn out, but if FDA is successful, at least in the short term, it will mean more saturated fats in consumer products.”

“I think this is a major development in FDA’s regulation of foods,” says Mark Itzkoff, a regulatory attorney at Olsson Frank Weeda Terman Matz. “This determination that a food ingredient is not generally recognized as safe ‘for any use in food’ is virtually unprecedented.”

FDA’s announcement is just the first step toward getting trans fats out of foods. The agency is taking comments for 60 days on its proposal, and from there it will make a final determination, but most experts expect it will continue to move towards the elimination of these products.

It could be years until the changes are implemented across the industry.

“The FDA has taken bold action by taking the next steps in examining the ‘safe status’ of partially hydrogenated oil and I applaud the agency for doing so,” said Harkin, in a statement issued Thursday.

The timeline will be long — and there could also be some loopholes, predicts one expert.

“There are a handful of foods out there that can’t get around it,” says Sonali Gunawardhana, a former top FDA attorney who now works for food companies at Wiley Rein.

“They’ve known for a while that this is a problem. They’ve known,” predicts Gunawardhana. “I think the agency is being conservative in their approach and they want to be collaborative.”

“It will be dependent on what industry says they can do,” she adds. “The bottom line is that reformulation takes time.”